


Growing Pains

by retorica



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Growing Up Together, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Pseudo-Incest, Rey is adopted, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 12:37:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12864678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retorica/pseuds/retorica
Summary: Leia adopts baby Rey after her parents' death, but little does she know what effect this will have on her son.





	Growing Pains

**Author's Note:**

> If this sort of scenario has been done before, I apologize for being repetitive, but I wanted to put my own spin on it. I like the idea of them growing up together and having this imperfect and charged pseudo-sibling relationship. If this isn't your cup of tea, I totally understand. I know that *incest* in the fandom is frowned upon, even when it's just at surface level. I'm mostly just writing this for myself and maybe a few of you will enjoy it too?  
> I know the age difference between Rey and Ben is probably around 10+ years, but in this story it's only 8 years. Oh yes, this is definitely AU, meaning that it will not follow TFA's trajectory. Also I'm not versed in the Expanded Universe, so try not to bite my head off, pls? I'll mostly be improvising. 
> 
> (for those of you who are wondering if I'll ever update my other Reylo fic - I hope so, but my muse hasn't been very kind there. fingers crossed.)

“She sat beside him on the bench, and her presence troubled him. He was  _inside_  the atmosphere, or light, or scent she spread, as a boat is inside the drag of a whirlpool, as a bee is caught in the lasso of perfume from the throat of a flower.”   
― A.S. Byatt, Angels and Insects

 

***

“Ben, I’d like you to meet your new sister. Here, watch the head.”

His mother handed him a small, almost weightless bundle. Very warm, very much alive. Ben did not wish to hold her at first. It seemed unnatural for him to touch a baby. She was also nothing to look at, her tiny face being red and crumpled.

But his mother did not suffer fools gladly, and it was imperative for him that he acquaint himself with the new member of the household.

Ben had only just turned eight, yet he already understood why his mother had chosen to bring someone new into the fold. She was lonely. His father was out on various capers across the galaxy so often – all of it thinly disguised as “very important work” for the New Republic – that his mother often felt a great absence in their home.

Ben was disappointed that apparently, he hadn’t been enough to quell his mother’s loneliness. No, this ugly little thing was required.

Nothing was stopping Leia Organa from following Han Solo on his adventures, except well, her _duty_. She was now a senator in the New Republic, an office which she was gladly serving in memory of her mother and his grandmother. Given the fact that the new government was still in its infancy, it was crucial that every capable person be stationed in Coruscant.

In truth, Leia enjoyed her work in the capital very much and whenever she needed an escape from the city, she would take Ben with her to Naboo, where they would stay in the Lake Country, at his grandmother’s favorite summer residence. It was a quiet, lovely paradise. Ben loved to swim to the island in the middle of the lake and catch fish by himself, while Leia whiskered the time away with a book. 

There was also the matter of Ben himself. As his mother, Leia was more preoccupied with his upbringing than his gallivanting father. Han loved his boy very much, but he was confident Ben would grow into the right person on his own.

Leia, however, was more reserved. The Skywalker side of the family was rife with personal complications. It paid to remain alert. She had sent Ben on a few visits to his uncle Luke on Ahch-To, but so far, the Force had yet to manifest in her son. She was not worried on that account and neither was Luke. They had both been late bloomers in matters of Force-wielding, and there was no need to rush Ben. What _worried_ Leia was that the Force, _when_ it emerged, might not be entirely beneficial to her son.

She had been guiding him carefully since infancy, but she had sensed that he was prone to a difficult, choleric temperament. She hoped he had not inherited his grandfather’s temper.

Right now, as he held his new sister, she could see faint inklings of resentment on his face. Leia tried, as a rule, not to use the Force on her son (she had become quite adept at it), but his moods often came to her without restraint. She could not oppose them.

Her son was not pleased. No, not at _all_.

Leia heaved a small sigh. She was not only doing this for herself; she was doing it for _him_  too. Another child in the house would do him good. He tended to isolate himself and play alone too much.

“Her name is Rey,” she said, smiling encouragingly. "With an "e"."

Ben frowned. “That’s a pretty stupid name.”

“Ben!”

“Well, _it_ is. It doesn't mean anything and it sounds funny."

“It was the name her parents chose for her before they died, so you ought to show some respect.”

Ben considered this briefly. “Who were they?”

“Heroes of the New Republic Army killed in action.”

She always tried to be plain with Ben, despite his young age. 

Of course, no one liked to talk about current casualties. No one wanted to admit that even after most of the Empire’s strongholds had been defeated, insurrections and power struggles still followed like mushrooms after the rain.

Every new regime, even though it was inaugurated with peace, had to dismantle the old one. And that was always a nasty business.

“She’s an orphan then,” Ben said, staring at the bundle more intently. The idea that this creature had no living parents anymore oddly fascinated him.

“She’s not an orphan. She’s _ours_ now. I will do my best to be her mother and you will stand in for her big brother. I’m sure you’ll love her very much.”

Ben was not sure at all. His arms were starting to grow weary from holding her. She was already being a nuisance.

Little Rey looked up at him with a pair of insular brown eyes, calm and unknowing and innocent.

Ben stared into those tiny orbs that expressed nothing and he felt a strange sting, like the bite of an insect, right under the skin. He wanted to scratch it.  

He stared at the flying vehicles outside the window. They seemed to sway chaotically in the air, governed by some secret inclination - but actually there was a very logical order to their proceeding. Traffic in Coruscant was fairly orderly.

He had a sudden mad impulse to dash to the window and throw the bundle out. Watch it flap helplessly before falling to its death.

He shuddered and turned away, scared and annoyed at himself. He handed Rey back to his mother.

She was _their_ mother now.

 

 

That night, as he lay in his bed and gazed at the hologram constellations on the ceiling, he reached out and palmed his body, in search of that spot on the skin which had seemed to itch earlier. The bite of an insect.

He couldn’t find it.

His body did not feel his own at the moment.

He felt that his old life was over somehow and that little Rey was going to take everything away for him, especially his mother’s attention. Maybe even his father, upon seeing her, would choose to stay home more often. Just for her. 

The itch seemed to return all at once, gnawing deep inside of him, like a pair of finely tuned claws.

He raised his arm and reached out towards the ceiling, as if begging for answers.

And then – then he felt the surge of it. The itch had become a force. _The_ Force.

He wasn’t entirely aware of it at the time, and he wouldn’t really come to think about it until he was older. His Force awakening had occurred the night his sister was introduced to him.


End file.
